Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[typologyenthusiast]

I come up with the idea that the Jedi in Star wars may be the short or a nickname for Jedidiah or nicknamed after him.

 

[Totenkindly]

Jedilicious!

Yum.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Jedilicious!

Yum.

I like that he has quarantine hair.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Why do they usually only remake good movies? Why is it always the ones that don’t need remakes? Why don’t they remake crappy movies? We don’t need another Ghostbusters and I wish they’d just let that franchise die. We don’t need another Big Trouble in Little China, the original is perfect. We didn’t need a remake of The Thing. I know it’s technically a prequel, but let’s be real, it was really a remake disguised as a prequel.

Where’s the Cherry 2000 remake? I love that movie, but it’s seriously flawed and could be improved upon. Where’s the Remo Williams remake? That could be done well with the right script and vision. How about CHUD? That could stand a remake in the right director’s hands.

The Blob was a good remake. The original was crap and it actually improved on it.

And if they are going to remake good movies, at least take a cue from Cronenberg and Carpenter and take it in a completely different direction. Remaking a good movie and hitting all of the same beats with a bunch of fan service moments is such a lazy and soulless way to go about it and it rarely leaves anyone happy with the results

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Cameron Mitchell is a treasure

 

[typologyenthusiast]

I watched Lucky Luke in my childhood. A cowboy who can shoot using a revolver pistol faster than his own shadow. I also watched Little House on the Prairie. Until I was teenager, I watched Chinese/Hongkong Movies also like To Liong To ( A dragon Slayer sword), Return of the Condor Heroes, Some vampire movies. I remember the name of their actors like: Bo Bo Ho, Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Tony Leung.

 

[Pessimistic Hippie]

I stayed up watching American Honey for the first time, it's like 6 AM right now so my brain's already in a weird head space. And the movie just tripped me out even more.

I really couldn't stand Star's character because I was so worried for her the whole time. She kept being so fucking reckless and I thought for sure she'd be sexually assaulted or killed. I think I saw a lot of the parts about me I don't like in her and maybe that was the point. Either way, I was tempted to stop watching early on because I thought I was gonna hate it.

But the worst was when she slept with Jake. Since it was obvious he was hooking up with Krystal and I knew Star was gonna become attached after they did it. That felt like a huge mistake.

The whole movie in itself made me feel so sad, empty, and helpless. I really wanted her and Jake to end up running away together and when I realized that was probably never gonna happen, I was crushed. I want to see the ending for the bittersweet kind of beauty that I think it was SUPPOSED to be, instead of me being so depressed over what didn't happen. So I think I'll have to watch it 1 or 2 more times.

 

[Totenkindly]

Why do they usually only remake good movies? Why is it always the ones that don’t need remakes? Why don’t they remake crappy movies? We don’t need another Ghostbusters and I wish they’d just let that franchise die. We don’t need another Big Trouble in Little China, the original is perfect. We didn’t need a remake of The Thing. I know it’s technically a prequel, but let’s be real, it was really a remake disguised as a prequel.

Where’s the Cherry 2000 remake? I love that movie, but it’s seriously flawed and could be improved upon. Where’s the Remo Williams remake? That could be done well with the right script and vision. How about CHUD? That could stand a remake in the right director’s hands.

The Blob was a good remake. The original was crap and it actually improved on it.

And if they are going to remake good movies, at least take a cue from Cronenberg and Carpenter and take it in a completely different direction. Remaking a good movie and hitting all of the same beats with a bunch of fan service moments is such a lazy and soulless way to go about it and it rarely leaves anyone happy with the results

Right. And sometimes a movie is enjoyable even when flawed, BECAUSE of the camp elements and the actors who were involved (e.g., Highlander or Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc). So a remake would likely be ignored/forgotten

But it kind of reveals the lame corporate thought underlying it. "That movie was a success! So if we redo it, all the fans of that film will be fans of our sterile pointless remake and we'll get all the similar money, just for updating the production quality!"

To be fair, you'd be surprised at what crap films actually are "successes" financially even if they bomb critically and vanish off the map. On paper, a film that makes money still made money... it becomes more a question of, are there intangibles that took a drubbing from the film (like the reputation of the studio and/or participants) and also what films didn't they make because their resources might have been tied up in a semi-profitable but dead-end film -- either scenario potentially resulting in loss of greater revenue than experienced?

 

[Totenkindly]

I stayed up watching American Honey for the first time, it's like 6 AM right now so my brain's already in a weird head space. And the movie just tripped me out even more.

**SPOILERS**

[spoilers removed]

You can use the "spoiler tag" to hide spoiler text so people don't accidentally see the text that is still appearing on the page.

[ spoiler ]spoiler text goes here and will not appear on the screen until the spoiler button is clicked[ /spoiler ]

Just remove all the spaces within the square brackets above and you'll get a spoiler button.

spoiler text goes here and will not appear on the screen until the spoiler button is clicked

 

[Pessimistic Hippie]

You can use the "spoiler tag" to hide spoiler text so people don't accidentally see the text that is still appearing on the page.

[ spoiler ]spoiler text goes here and will not appear on the screen until the spoiler button is clicked[ /spoiler ]

Just remove all the spaces within the square brackets above and you'll get a spoiler button.

spoiler text goes here and will not appear on the screen until the spoiler button is clicked

I forgot about that because I never use it. Thanks, it's fixed now.

 

[Totenkindly]

I stayed up watching American Honey for the first time, it's like 6 AM right now so my brain's already in a weird head space. And the movie just tripped me out even more.

Never heard of this film before, when did it come out?

high five on watching films into the wee hours of the morning, lol

 

[Pessimistic Hippie]

Never heard of this film before, when did it come out?

high five on watching films into the wee hours of the morning, lol

Apparently it was from 2016, Shia Labeouf has a major role in it and I know there are people not really crazy about him. So seemed worth mentioning lol

And yeah..I can't even manage to sleep now that it's done xD Was just barely worth it.

 

[Totenkindly]

Apparently it was from 2016, Shia Labeouf has a major role in it and I know there are people not really crazy about him. So seemed worth mentioning lol

ah... yeah ... I recalled now I did see a film with him in recent times, but it was Honey Boy. (What is up with him and honey?)

He's actually a decent actor, if he gets the right role, he's just kind of ... intense. And I know he has some bad rep because of how he's acted on set or off. I try to just appreciate a good performance if I see it.

And yeah..I can't even manage to sleep now that it's done xD Was just barely worth it.

lol. I was having some sleep trouble and being up on the weekends until 3-4am in recent times, yeah, it throws my cycle out of whack... it's too bad the film wasn't as exciting as hoped.

 

[Totenkindly]

Rewatching "Jacob's Ladder" on HBO Max. I don't think I've seen it for twenty years, so I was planning on a rewatch at some point.

Since I already know what's going on, I'll just say I think the film shows its hand too early in the film. I'm not sure how to fix this, as much of it feels like a fever dream. I think maybe if Jacob referred more to the past event that has traumatized him as something that was resolved / fixed, then that would redirect the viewer early on? Sometimes movies can get away with showing their hand early in the film... but you have to have the proper setup. (Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" is a great example of this -- it parades the truth in front of the viewer until the final ten minutes, because it has successfully redirected everyone away from it early on.) Jacob's Ladder is not as deft.

That being said, it's still kind of interesting and very unsettling (like that whole sequence at the dance party? Yeesh).

There's a lot of actors here who showed up more in later films/TV, so it's a joy to pick them out of the crowd. Ving Rhames? lol. I know that guy's voice anywhere. Two of note, though:

- Macauley Caulkin. I think this film came out shortly before "Home Alone." His first appearance in this film is a photo and I was like "shit, that's Culkin." He has such a distinctive head shape and mouth. He's apparently uncredited. But he actually shows up "fer reals" later in the film. His deliveries of his lines are actually good, for a ten year old. So he actually could act. I've seen many more stilted ten-year-old boy actors, he's better than that.

- Elizabeth Pena. I wish I had watched more stuff with her. She is just lovely here. I am aware that she fought like hell to get this part in JL. She's beautiful, full of energy, fully alive. She anchors much of the film by her presence. I'm just looking at her with fresh eyes. She was around 30 at this time. She just kind of takes the breath away. The other thing I know her very well in (which is ironic) is "The Incredibles," since she played Mirage... who is very white and has a totally different body shape. But the voice is the same, and kind of understated for her. It shows the range of her acting ability, though. I remember feeling gut-punched when she died in 2014. It was made worse that she was only 55 and died of cirrhosis of the liver, from a chronic alcohol problem. My own grandmother died at 54 or so from the same thing, so it feels very personal to me. I just feel so sad today watching this, she is so alive still on screen even if her body has moved on. What a loss.

FInished this over the weekend, finally. (I'm terrible. I have a number of movies I've only half-watched.)

Yeah, I think it's a great film in terms of how unsettling the imagery/aura is around it, but it does try to be more profound than most films of this genre and does harken back to leaving people with at least one cogent truth -- that often hell for us consists of holding onto things whose time is past, it is a fight for survival and avoiding feelings of dying, and yet there is as peace in allowing things to run their course and moving ahead, accepting death is part of life, and relying on the hope that whatever is head is better than the trauma of the past.

That being said, I do feel like the plotting of the film isn't as strong as it could be in pulling everything together. It kind of just floats along until it's over and it plays some of its hand way early.

Along with the dance club scene, the other really disturbing sequence is the "descending in the bowels of the hospital" bit. Wow, that's just nuts. I read that they cut 20-25 minutes from the film of similar, because the test audiences was really disturbed.

I never bothered to watch the remake from a year or two ago. It sounds like it just doesn't have the power of the original. Jacob's Ladder is probably one of those films that should never be remade because despite its flaws you're not going to improve on what they already did. Flatliners was another such thing, the remake was seemingly garbage, despite flaws in the original -- but you have decent enough performances by some of the most renown brat pack performers of the time, which you lose in a remake. (The issue with the original Flatliners was mostly scripting issues, where they existed -- and also Schumacher's lack of nuance. I really liked Joe's through-line. It was one of Hope Davis' first roles and she totally nails that scene, it's amazing.)

Is there really anything equitable to the brat pack in today's similar group of young actors? Who actually is popular right now? It all feels so faceless / personality-less to me in the 18-25 crowd, side from stand-outs like Anya-Taylor Joy (for example, and she's not really a "brat pack," she's out doing quality work and her own thing).

 

[Totenkindly]

I started rewatching "Aquaman" in 4k on Saturday, got an hour in.

On second watch, it's SO much a popcorn film... but it's really pretty decent for that genre of film, which is greatly helped by the lead cast. There's some triteness to the dialogue at times, but it's pretty spectacular visually and just clips along. And there are occasional moments that feel deeper than deserved, like when the two brothers meet briefly before the first Ring of Fire combat and tell each other exactly what they hoped for from each other but where things are going.

I think my biggest issue is simply how it isn't well-synced with other films in the DC universe. This is really exacerbated by the release of the JLSC which has much more gravitas and realism, versus this kind of summer thrill-fest throwaway line approach to the story. There are also details that don't sync up. I can't expect them to, if JLSC is not the "accepted continuity" -- but I actually like the JLSC continuity better than what they chose. For examples, elements of Arthur's and Mera's back stories are discordant, facts about Atlanta, Arthur's mother. Early training with Willem DaFoe and young Arthur. Arthur's supposed "first time in Atlantis" but BOTH JL movie versions have him there to protect the mother box. I'm pretty sure that the throne + trident we see in JLSC with Arthur looking at it is exactly the trident he has no idea where it is in Aquaman and he has to go all over the place to locate it, lol. Like, what?

Chris Terrio released an interview last week stating he was never given any details or script for the other films when he had to write his script for JLSC, so he was just making it all up as he went without any idea what was being done on the other films. I mean, I guess it's better for dC to tell standalone tales overall, if they don't have the infrastructure or motivation to actually bother to sync up their stories via communication during production.

Still, getting back to Aquaman, it's still kind of impressive, some of the action sequences. Or having that giant great white ramming the glass to protect young Arthur. And so on. It's not my preferred style, but in THAT genre, it's put together pretty nicely.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I want to see Aquaman. Especially after a guy on a podcast I listened to called it "Black Panther for dumb guys. "

I've enjoyed Momoa since Stargate: Atlantis, so, yeah.

 

[Totenkindly]

I want to see Aquaman. Especially after a guy on a podcast I listened to called it "Black Panther for dumb guys. "

I've enjoyed Momoa since Stargate: Atlantis, so, yeah.

I think he's pretty cool, I don't know why people hate on him.
Plus I always liked Lisa Bonet too, lol.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

John de hart is a genius

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

John de hart is a genius

I googled him. What is his association with Bob Saget, again?

I can't say whether or not he is a genius, but Greydon Clark certainly is.

Why were we robbed of a "Star Games" cinematic universe? Disney better buy that shit up.

It would have been enough if he did Star Games, but he also did Angel's Revenge, Final Justice, and Uninvited (about a killer cat on an 80's yacht).

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'm going to go for the rifftrax of Treasures of the Amazon, which looks to be an Indiana Jones ripoff, which is a genre I don't think I've ever seen any of the MST crew tackle before. Which is too bad, because I know for the fact that the Cannon Alan Quatermain movies would be gold. (I'm sure the sequel is probably also the thing James Earl Jones regrets doing the most.).